House Bill 63: Candidacy Deadline Reform Act

Maryland has numerous state-level elected offices that go up for election every four years:

• 141 State Representatives (Delegates)
• 47 State Senators
• 1 Attorney General
• 1 Comptroller
• 1 Governor + 1 Lieutenant Governor
  

Aside from these we have 2 US Senators, 8 US Congressmen and a multitude of county-level offices that go up for election at various times as well. Each of these elections attract multiple candidates. That's a good thing. Democracy requires people to elect their leaders. As far as I'm concerned, the more choices we have, the better!

Candidates for these offices have to jump through numerous hoops to qualify for elections. The most significant such hoop is actually filing a candidacy with the Maryland State Board of Elections. As you might expect, their is a "filing deadline" by which all candidates must register their candidacies. If you miss the deadline, your name will not appear on the ballot. Fair enough, right?

However, strangely enough, Maryland law allows 10 days after the filing deadline for any candidate to remove their name from the ballot. During this 10 day period, no new candidates can file, but existing candidates can remove their names from contention. This might seem like an innocuous little quirk but in fact, this oddity allows for some nefarious activity on the part of candidates and those attempting to distort the democratic process. People might file their candidacies to run for office without any intention of actually contesting the election. By doing this, they might discourage other potential candidates from filing their candidacies (this is called "clearing the field"). If they collude with another preferred candidate, they can easily game the system so that their preferred is the only other candidate in the race. Then, once the filing deadline has passed (but before the drop-out deadline), the "fake-candidate" can simply withdraw their candidacy.... thus leaving their preferred candidate as the only horse in the race. They can play this deceptive game because they are safe in the knowledge that within that 10-day period, no new candidates can enter the race, but they can exit.

Who would engage in such a contrived scheme? Unfortunately, there have been recent cases in Maryland in which this exact scenario has occurred. It's a shame that people would cynically try to warp the democratic process in such a way. But it happens.

For this reason, I have introduced House Bill 63: Candidacy Deadline Reform Act. This bill changes the current law such that the drop-out deadline is the same as the filing deadline. Thus closing the 10-day loophole window. You can read the actual text of the bill here.